This Harperís Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast registers the
dismay that Uncle Sam feels as he probes the Whiskey Ring scandal in
which Treasury Department officials and whiskey distillers defrauded the
federal government of liquor-tax revenues.

In the early days of the presidential administration of Ulysses S.
Grant (1869-1877) a minor whiskey cabal had been broken, and after the
liquor tax was lowered significantly, the distillers were less inclined
to avoid it. The lucrative incentive for Treasury Department officials
to commit the fraud, however, remained the same, and they began
pressuring distillers to join a wider and stronger conspiracy. Some
distillers participated readily in giving illegal kickbacks in lieu of
the tax, while those who hesitated were charged with technical
violations of the law until they agreed to cooperate.

The fraud took place in cities across the country, but was centered
in St. Louis (in the cartoon, it is the first barrel led away by the
police). The St. Louis ring was headed by John McDonald, the Treasury
Departmentís supervisor of internal revenue for the St. Louis area and
an old army buddy of President Grant. Some of the fraudulent money went
into Republican campaign coffers, but most was pocketed by the ring
members for personal use. In an obvious attempt to fend off
administration inquiries, McDonald gave expensive gifts to Orville
Babcock, Grantís personal secretary and close friend. McDonald also
later testified to giving the president lavish gifts, but the claim was
not proven in court.

In June 1874, President Grant appointed Benjamin H. Bristow to
replace Treasury Secretary William Richardson, who had resigned under
the cloud of another scandal. Bristow soon learned that a Whiskey Ring
was defrauding the government out of millions of dollars in annual
revenue, so he ordered an immediate and thorough investigation. (His
statement to that effect appears at the top of the cartoon.) Bristow,
along with Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont and Treasury solicitor
Bluford Wilson, secured indictments for 238 individuals, 110 of whom
were eventually convicted.

In the summer of 1875, Grant was told that Babcock might be involved
in the Whiskey Ring, and the disheartened president informed Bristow to
"Let no guilty man escape." Babcock, however, was able to
convince the president that he was an innocent victim of Bristowís
desire to gain notoriety and thereby the Republican presidential
nomination. By the time a grand jury indicted Babcock for conspiracy to
defraud the government on December 9, 1875, the president was hostile to
the investigation. When the governmentís special counsel, former
senator John B. Henderson, hinted publicly that Babcockís involvement
threw suspicion on the presidentís role, Grant removed him from the
case.

On February 12, 1876, the president voluntarily gave a deposition at
the White House, swearing to Babcockís innocence. Later in the month,
partly on the strength of the presidentís testimony, a jury found
Babcock not guilty. When Babcock resumed his position as the presidentís
private secretary, a shocked public outcry forced him to resign. Shortly
thereafter, he was indicted on the charge of complicity in the theft of
incriminating documents, but was again found not guilty. Bristow also
resigned and did become a candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination, but lost to Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio.